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1962 Hawk Road Trip: Click & Clack

'Seems like we've been through this before, but this just appeared in the Saturday, January 5, 2013 Indianapolis Star:

Geeze, it's less than 600 miles from Chicago IL to Joplin in the far SW corner of Missouri...but according to these guys, the fellas must be entertaining a trip around the world on unpaved roads, for Pete's sake! Were 1962 Hawks only suitable for urban trips of less than 20 miles before breaking down and needing repairs?

(Yes, I know we have-ahem-"divergent" opinions about Click & Clack here on the SDC Forum, but I think their repeated insistence that the car will break down many times is a bit over the top.) BP

We've got to quit saying, "How stupid can you be?" Too many people are taking it as a challenge.

Ayn Rand: "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."

G. K. Chesterton: This triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.

John Prodan and his wife from South Dakota always drove their Canyon Copper '57 Golden Hawk to SDC meets. And, they would often take one of their grandchildren to a meet with them, which they looked forward to, much like these two boys in the above article. I don't think there was any opposition from the parents of their grandchildren as they knew John would have no problem getting that Hawk on the road again had there ever been a breakdown. Sad to say, John Prodan passed away a few years ago, but last I heard, the beautiful Hawk remained in the family and went to his daughter in California.

Having taken longer and more adventurous trips in older cars, This looks like a cakewalk. I've busted across the interstates in a 57 T-Bird from Phoenix to my birth town, South Bend, Indiana in 37 hours. Did have a generator fail in Oklahoma, but was back on the road in about an hour. People drove these cars across the country when they were new, what's different about them now? I look at old cars driving across the country as just a trip around the block. Figure the car has over 200,000 miles on it, what's another 2000?

Yep. Sounds like the Hawk owner has already fixed the things that truly matter for the operation of the car, leaving creature comforts aside for the moment, which is certainly the correct order in which to attend to things. My Lark did strand me a time or two early on, and I didn't take any really long trips till I was pretty sure the car was mechanically ready. Have since driven the Lark to SB and back, twice to the London area and twice to the Belleville area, with the bulk of those trips being on expressways on the power of an OHV Stude 6, and broke down not once...not even a hiccup. As stated above, this trip in a V8 GT Hawk on old Route 66 looks like a cakewalk...and a ton of fun. Wish I could tag along!

Just remember that the main function of Click and Clack is to entertain. They are deliberately silly and would have said the same about any old car. Their point was go for it and so what if it breaks down?

Another thing to remember about Tom and Ray is that the bulk of their audience are not people who know much about automobiles.

This morning's show a guy from Wisconsin wanted to cut the roof off his 4 door Cavalier so he could have a convertible - that both agreed that it was not a good idea because the roof and pillars were an integral part of what keeps the car rigid.

I have no problem with driving any of my Studebaker any distance - but - I also carry with me a spare fuel pump, water pump, belt, and tool box - just in case. On my brand X, I carry no spare parts. I stopped driving a Studebaker full time in 2002 - I replaced the fuel pump six times on that '62 Lark in about five years - once along the side of the road in complete darkness (but knew how to do it well enough I did not need a light...).

In the years I have owned "new cars", I have yet to have a water pump, fuel pump, starter, alternator, or anything like that go out on me. I think a lot of people today think that is the way cars have always been - those of us in the know, know better.

My 15-year old son and I just made a mostly-cross-country trip (St. George, Utah to Manassas, VA) in a '59 Silver Hawk with no breakdowns. The bump steer with the worn front suspension and skinny bias ply tires took some getting used to (fortunately, the car had the Turner disc brake conversion), but the trip was a blast, overall. We beat Murphy's Law by bringing a whole bunch of tools and spares that we didn't need.